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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27478426">Grestle and Murleth's Adventures in Eorzea</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SHIELDmylife/pseuds/SHIELDmylife'>SHIELDmylife</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy XIV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Author hasn't finished ARR yet, Lalafell Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), M/M, Multi, Near Death Experiences, Nonbinary Character, One sibling is a warrior of light, Other, Past Abuse, Past Relationship(s), Siblings, White Mage and Arcanist siblings, but I've watched plenty of streams!, tagging that now but it's only vaguely mentioned in one line at the moment, the other is not, this is a drabble collection sorry yall, written for class but may be continued</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:53:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,743</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27478426</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SHIELDmylife/pseuds/SHIELDmylife</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Grestle and Murleth Rethson are two of Eorzea's newest (and smallest) adventurers. Join them through adventures and heartbreak as they explore all the land (and beyond) has to offer!</p><p>A drabble collection started for class. Might be continued! Warnings and spoiler tags will be posted at the begining of each chapter.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>G'raha Tia | Crystal Exarch/Warrior of Light, Lalafell Characters/Lalafell Characters (Final Fantasy XIV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Gifts and Glasses</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Morning bells and sibling bickering.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>ARR- Post Ifrit</p><p>I don't think there's any warnings for this chapter. Just some sibling fluff.</p><p>Lark is my friend's character- he will pop in from time to time.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>    Grestle groaned at the sound of the morning bell, the reminder that it was time to get up and get to work. The clanging was just outside of his window, and, gods above, he was growing to despise the noise. Slowly, stretching every limb out until it settled, he sat up in his bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Blindly grasping out, he found his glasses mixed up with something or the other on his bedside table. After a long fight of mumbled curses at his past self, he finally got his glasses on. Blinking a few times to adjust, he looked to see that his glasses had been tangled up in his sister’s weaving, and now part of her work had been unraveled. Grestle sighed with frustration and looked over to the foot of the bed, which his sister had claimed as hers.</p><p>    The bed was big enough to fit a Roegadyn, let alone two Lalafells, and so they had decided with the inkeep that one room was big enough for two of Eorzea’s smallest adventurers. He was grateful for this fact, because after everything that had happened he didn’t really want to be alone, but moments like this made him second-guess the wisdom of that choice. With a glance at the mound of blankets on the other side of the mattress, he set down her weaving and rolled off of the bed, onto the pillows he had placed many moons before.</p><p>    He stood and picked up his wand, casually calling upon the spirits of Gridania’s forest to cast an Aero at his sister. Grestle couldn’t help but chuckle in that way only annoyed older siblings can as she sat up, her short green hair being buffeted by a low amount of wind. She blindly grasped out for her arcane text, fingers curling in a half-formed spell even before her eyes became alert. Her Carbuncle also sat up from where she had been laying next to her, growling at him before recognizing who he was and that her caster was not under any real attack.</p><p>    Murleth let the spell die on her lips as she realized that the caster of the spell was none other than her older brother. As the sixteen seconds of spell wore off, she dropped her book on her lap with a groan and crossed her arms. “Grestle-”</p><p>    He gestured to her weaving where he had set it back on the table. “This was on my bedside table, Murleth. Not yours.” She gasped and crawled across the bed to retrieve it, while he walked to the dresser.</p><p>    “Grestle! What did you do to- oh no, this was for mom!”</p><p>    He sighed and shook his head as he looked in his drawer before turning to the bed again. “Mur, you know I can’t see without these.” He wiggled the frames on his face for emphasis. “It got hooked on my glasses, and if you had woken with the bell, or just put it on your own table as we have discussed many times, it would have been fine.” She stared at it with guilt clear in the tears welling up in the corners of her eyes, and he felt the fight go out of him as quickly as it had taken hold. “Okay, look. Mother Miounne probably has our breakfast ready, let us get dressed and go down there, and I’ll help you fix it before we continue on our journey, okay?” She nodded, looking grateful, and he rolled his eyes. “Only ‘cause it’s for mom, Mur, otherwise you would be on your own, here.”</p><p>    She set the weaving down and rolled off the bed herself, before pulling him into a hug. He sighed and patted her back, rolling his eyes but secretly giving a fond smile where she couldn’t see it. “Yeah, yeah, now come and hurry, we have to be at the Waking Sands before the noontime bell.” Murleth groaned and he snorted at her antics before taking his own clothes from the drawer behind him and retreating behind the screen in the corner of the room.</p><p>    Half a bell later, the two had finally managed to find a table in the Canopy, food in front of them and the weaving piled in between them. Grestle pushed aside his breakfast in favor of inspecting the weaving, trying to find what was salvageable and what would need tearing out. He pulled on a thread and felt it come loose easily, slipping unattached to anything else. He hummed and fixed his glasses on his face, bringing the loom closer to get a better look. Grestle was brought out of his focused state when he heard a happy chirp, and some giggling. With a long-suffering sigh, he set down the loom on the table and looked across, where Murleth had busied herself by feeding her Carbuncle a piece of her bread. “I thought Carbuncles were creatures of the Aether, and didn’t need feeding?”</p><p>    She tutted and continued to give up some of her bread. “Oh, don’t listen to him Aldy, he’s never had a pet before. He doesn’t understand.” The Emerald Carbuncle shook herself, her bluish glow seeming brighter as she puffed up proudly. Grestle sighed, shaking his head. He had supported his sister, when she had decided to switch to the Arcane arts upon their arrival in Limsa Lominsa a month ago, but he would never understand her need to consider her summoned creature of Aether a pet. He had seen that thing take down an entire Goobbue by itself, and she was feeding it bread. With another roll of his eyes and a bite of his toast, he picked up the weaving once again.</p><p>    His attention was not held for long, as he saw a hand reach across the table. He whacked the offending hand with the small makeshift hand loom, and didn’t bother looking up. “Lark. Really?” He looked up to his sister’s friend and fellow Arcanist with a long-suffering sigh. The Miqo'te, for all his bravery in trying to steal some of his food, was timid in his stance, his ears flattened against his head and his tail swishing nervously behind him. “Between fixing this mess and requesting the airship, I do need to eat. Where is your own breakfast?”</p><p>    The Miqo'te looked around, looking for an out. “I uh- that is- I wasn’t one-hundred percent as to where-”</p><p>    Murleth stood and pulled the twice as tall boy into a chair before pushing some of her food over. “Ignore him, he woke up grumpy. C’mon, eat up, Catboy! We need to leave soon.” As always, the term Catboy started another trade of teases and half-insults between the two, and Grestle once again turned to his work. It really was just another morning, and hopefully, unlike most other days, he would actually be able to finish his food before they set off.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>By the way, the creator of Lark posted their own story, go give them some love <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30475680">here!</a></p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Seaside Fights</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Nursing his own broken heart, Grestle tries to stop Murleth from making the same mistake.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Post Crystal Tower Raids spoilers</p><p>Vaguely alluded to past child abuse, mentioned character death, Grestle has a lot of issues and doesn't know how to talk about it.</p><p>This one's a very different tone from the last one, sorry about that.</p><p>Lyla was my first FFXIV character back when I was a free trial user! They will also show up often.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>   The taller Lalafell that had tripped into Murleth upon exiting the Arcanist’s Guild was adorable, even he could admit that, but the most adorable thing about the entire encounter had been watching Murleth be unable to form a coherent thought the entire time they talked about the Arcane arts together. Even now as Lyla, as they had said their name was, walked on their way to wherever the guildmaster had sent them, Murleth continued to watch them in awe. Grestle tried to ignore the part of him that ached to be back with his Other, and instead used the moment to tease his little sister over her rather obvious crush.</p><p>   "You do know they're too old for you, yeah?" He couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up when she spun on the spot to face him, mouth open in shock, and shoved him for daring to say such a thing. "What? They may be newer to this, but they're obviously older than us. Height aside, of course." Them being no taller than most Lalafell children had made the older Acanist confused momentarily, which would never not be annoying.</p><p>   Murleth huffed and crossed her arms, trying to look as serious as she could with her cheeks and nose tinged with red. "What does that matter?" </p><p>   Grestle rolled his eyes and set his hand on her shoulder, trying to look like a wiser older brother. "Just… wait a little longer, okay? Get some more adventuring under your belt." He once again tried not to think about a green eye turned Allagan red, and willed himself to pretend that the age gap was all he cared about.</p><p>   She shoved his hand off her shoulder. "Please, like I didn't see you making eyes at a certain red-furred catboy the entire time we were with him. You don't have any room to talk." She winced ever so slightly, but the damage had already been done. She looked like she wanted to apologize and also like she wanted nothing more than to disappear in the moment. He sighed as she chose the latter.</p><p>   Grestle reached out and grabbed her arm, keeping her from leaving the conversation.  "And you saw what happened, Murleth. You know what that did to me. I don't, I just…" He sighed and let go of her arm, frustration starting to sink in. He just wanted her to listen to him. “Why do we need anyone else? We’ve lost enough people, Mur. We don’t even visit mom anymore.”</p><p>   Murleth crossed her arms, clearly upset about the way this conversation was turning. “I still don’t think that's fair, by the way, to us or to her. She misses us, we miss her. Grestle, by the Twelve above you are one of the most stubborn people- I don’t know why in the Seven Hells I followed you! I could have been on my own! Gods know sometimes I wish I was. I miss when we were doing our separate adventures, and I wasn’t always with you.” The words were as heavy as the clouds above them, and neither moved to push through the weight of the silence that followed.</p><p>   Eventually she took a step forward, to try and push away the silence, but Grestle took a half step back, his hand falling from where it had still been stretched out. He looked away momentarily, obviously trying to regain composure. When he turned back to meet her eyes, it was clear that it didn’t work, as his own were watery, and his hands were balled up in fists at his side. He felt his temper rising in his chest, fueling his tears, and he didn’t attempt to reign it in.  “You miss being alone? You miss it? Why don’t you go home then? I thought I was finally going to get away from everyone, finally make a name for my own, away from the pitying looks of home, but then Mom begged me to take you too. I never wanted to bring my tag-along little sister with me. I wanted to finally stand on my own!”</p><p>   Her hand fell to rest on the book on her hip without conscious intent; the guilt was partially gone now, suffocated with the anger landing heavy in her heart. “Well, I’m not sorry for wanting to tag along with you! I wanted to see the world, make new friends, meet new races. I want to be around you, still, but gods do you make it hard. You’re dramatic and morbid and you keep to yourself! All you do is stay solitary- you don’t make friends, you don’t talk to anyone you don’t need to- Grestle, you’re selfish!”</p><p>   “I’m selfish because I’m scared!” He clapped his hands over his mouth, trying to hold back any more secrets he hadn’t intended to tell. Grestle watched Murleth’s face fall, and turned away, trying to build up his anger again from the embers and ashes. His own admission seemed to have been as numbing as the waves of the ocean below their feet, dousing their anger and leaving them both cold and hurt. The tears that had been pooling in his eyes finally raced down his cheeks, but he didn’t turn to face her. “Even before we made it to Gridania, we were always under attack. We had already fought so much, sis, even before we left our little town. Since then, what’s happened to us? We’ve watched parties break, we watched our acquaintances- our.. Our friends die, and the one time I let someone in, he decided he needed to seal himself away for the greater good of the people. He didn’t even have the common decency to tell me personally. He… G’raha was going to do it without telling me. And we had to let him.” He slid his hands under his glasses, covering his eyes with his palms. “I’m tired of being hurt, Mur. And I don’t want to hurt anyone else when this Echo thing gets me killed.”</p><p>   “Stop it.” He started to turn, dropping his arms to his sides, but was stopped by a pair of arms wrapping around his chest. “Stop talking like that.”</p><p>   Grestle let out a slightly hysterical laugh, feeling the admission rattle around in his chest. “It’s true, sis, we all know it’s going to-”</p><p>   “No, Grestle, you had your rant. Shut up.” He fell silent and she stood there for a moment longer before pulling back and grabbing his hand, tugging him over to some boxes nearby. She shoved him onto a Lalafell-sized box and then climbed on next to him, sitting and pulling her knees up to her chest. He still looked like he wanted to speak, but she shook her head and he looked down at his hands in his lap.</p><p>   “You don’t get to tell me that you dying is a when. And even, gods forbid, if it was a when, pushing everyone in the lands away isn’t going to stop the loss. Our loss.” She messes with her bag strap, not looking at him. “Did you know Mom writes nearly every day now, asking when we’re coming home for a visit? I hid the letters from you, told her we were really busy, made empty promises for you. She feels our loss at home already, imagine how she’s gonna feel if that ‘maybe’ does become a ‘when,’ and she hasn’t even gotten to see you.” He mumbled a protest but she pushed on, determined to get her point across. “Even worse, say she didn’t care. Would you want that? Would you want no one to mourn you when you’re gone?” She sniffled, and Grestle looked over to her, tears falling freely. “Not to say I only want friends so I have someone to mourn me, that’d be incredibly morbid.” </p><p>   Grestle managed a weak chuckle at that, and she gave a hiccoughing chuckle back, knocking shoulders with him. She finally looked up at him again, scooting closer on the box to his side. “Even with all of that, you can’t honestly think no one would miss you? We know too many people. Hurt is gonna happen, we’ve already worried so many. Why not find some comfort too? Why deny ourselves the joy of friendship, the heartbreak of chasing after someone? We’re barely adults ourselves, why can’t we act like it?” Grestle looked chastised, but she wanted to finish her thought. “Yeah, we’ve got big problems, we’ve gotta be stronger and protect our home, but that can’t be all we’re here for. If I want to chase after someone, especially someone as cute as Lyla, that should be okay with you. I’m not gonna deny myself friendships and partnerships just because you’re all morbid. And you shouldn’t either.”</p><p>   He sat in thought for a moment before giving a hesitant shoulder bump back. “I.. don’t think I can yet. But okay.” </p><p>   She leaned her head on his shoulder as he gave her a one-armed hug. The occasional sob worked its way up, but slowly they calmed down from their dramatics. The sounds of the seaport continued around them, no one having paid any mind to the altercation between the famed siblings. There was something nice about not being noticed for once, and the pair let the hustle and bustle draw them into a peaceful silence.</p><p>   The quiet between them wasn’t to last, as Grestle finally brought their conversation back to their original topic. “I still think they’re too old for you.”</p><p>   “I think you’re going to be swimming in a minute if you don’t shut up.”</p>
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